US nuclear repository is among the federally owned spots identified for renewable energy projects
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday that it is partnering with another energy company as part of a mission to transform swaths of government property once used for the nation’s nuclear weapons program into prime real estate for renewable energy projects.
The federal agency will negotiate a lease with Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources Development for nearly 3 square miles (7.8 square kilometers) of land surrounding the nation’s only underground nuclear waste repository.
The project at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southern New Mexico is the latest announced by the Department of Energy. The department has identified more than 50 square miles of government land that could be used to build solar panels and battery storage systems that could provide utilities with zero-emission electricity.
Other leases are already under negotiation for projects ranging from the Hanford site in Washington state, where the US produced plutonium, to national labs and other sites in Idaho, Nevada and South Carolina.
Andrew Mayock of the White House Council on Environmental Quality on Tuesday reiterated a statement made earlier this year when the initial negotiations were announced. He said federal agencies are using their scale and purchasing power to support the growth of the clean energy sector.
“We will stimulate new, clean electricity production, which is good for our climate, our economy and our national security,” he said.
Federal officials say the New Mexico nuclear plant has the potential to install at least 150 megawatts of solar energy and another 100 megawatts of storage.
While the amount of energy NextEra generates at the WIPP site would be more than enough to meet the storage facility’s needs, none of the energy would be put directly into government operations there. Officials said the energy from the solar panels would be sold by NextEra to Xcel Energy and fed into the utility’s distribution system.
Xcel serves customers in parts of New Mexico and Texas, and in other states.
Officials said there was no estimate of when the first shovel could hit the ground. They said engineering and planning work would be needed once the lease is signed, and regulatory approvals would be needed.
The largest of the so-called cleanup-to-clean-energy projects is planned for the Hanford Site, where Hecate Energy LLC plans to deliver a gigawatt-scale system spanning thousands of acres on the southeastern edge of the property. That project could be years away from coming online.